RL

The Raman lidar (RL) is an active, ground-based, laser remote-sensing instrument that provides height- and time-resolved measurements of water-vapor mixing ratio, temperature, aerosol, and cloud optical properties. The RL operates in the ultraviolet (UV) and is sensitive to both molecular and aerosol backscatter.

The RL works by transmitting short pulses of UV laser light into the atmosphere. As the light propagates, a small fraction of the light energy is scattered back to the lidar transceiver where it is collected and recorded as a time-resolved signal. From the delay between the outgoing pulse and the backscattered signal, the instrument infers the distance to the scattering volume.

As the name implies, the RL makes use of the Raman effect in which light is inelastically scattered by atmospheric N₂, O_2, and H₂O molecules. The ARM RL uses a number of narrow-band detection channels specifically tuned to sense the Raman backscatter from these molecules. Several other detection channels are configured to measure elastically backscattered light from atmospheric aerosol. The raw signals from these detection channels are combined and processed to yield measurements of water vapor mixing ratio, temperature, aerosol backscatter coefficient, extinction, and depolarization ratio.